December 15, 2025
Good morning!
It’s Monday, and look who has returned for another winter patrol! It’s our handsome and hard-working field inspector Ralph.
This was him after finishing his routine patrol of the rock pile inhabited by a very large family of garden-raiding voles. He’s always issuing citations that the voles ignore, prompting him to return and take at least one truant into custody.
I don’t think he was successful today. When I spotted him, he was shaking his head and trotting towards the woods, presumably to file a report with headquarters.
But Ralph is nothing but diligent. I know he’ll be back.
“Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.”—Wendell Berry
Onwards,
Clara




I adore your anthropomorphic tales. I am always often assigning attributes to critters and I have no doubt we are both spot on.🩷
Ralph is a handsome fellow just trying to make a living.